


Lockers & Laboratories

by starkspangledsoldier (orphan_account)



Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Artist Steve Rogers, Asthmatic Steve Rogers, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Hurt Steve Rogers, Hurt Tony Stark, Jealous Tony Stark, M/M, Nerd Tony Stark, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Steve Rogers, Steve Feels, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Steve Rogers doesnt want to leave tony alone, Steve Rogers hurt, Then tony feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony stark doesnt want to be alone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:47:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25666933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/starkspangledsoldier
Summary: Tony Stark is the new kid in Avengers High, a school which is not known for its hospitality.On his first day he is saved from the bully, Rumlow, by none other than the handsome football captain, Steve Rogers.As days go by, Tony finds out he is slowly falling for Steve Rogers and he doesn't care what stands in between their relationship.
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Thor, Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau, James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Peggy Carter/Angie Martinelli, Pepper Potts/James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 43





	1. Bullies

"Jealous? Of what? sweaty armpits and an IQ of....25?" Tony asked the burly guy in front of him with a smug smile on his lips.

This was all Howard's fault. He knew damn well that Tony did not need to attend high school. About fifty colleges had invited him to join them for crying out loud. 

But no, that wasn't enough for Mr.Howard Stark. According to him, his son needed to be properly educated and that meant sitting through classes he did not need for a few years. Tony seriously doubted if his father was scared that he would outdo him.

Anyways, that was the reason he was standing against a locker in the hall of a public high school, acting as though he wasn't scared of a guy twice his size. Still, deep in he was scared, though it was mostly about the fact that he would be having the bully's five hundred pound fist against his face. 

Tony was still resolute on not giving him the satisfaction of knowing he was scared.

"You take that back!" The burly kid snarled, baring his crooked and uneven teeth at Tony.

He grimaced and took a step back wiping the spit out of his face in disgust as he told him "Yeah, um, no."

He slammed his eyes shut and readied himself to get beaten up by the chimpanzee of a man.

"No! Rumlow!" Another voice shouted out suddenly and Tony gasped out, opening his eyes as he felt a hand grab some of his shirt.  
He left a sigh of relief on seeing blonde standing in between Rumlow and himself.

The blonde's eyebrows were furrowed together in fury, his lips pulled back into a thin line as his blue eyes leeched with such anger Tony felt he might beat him up instead of Rumlow. He sighed as the blonde calmed down a bit and smoothed down his shirt.

"Hello, saviour..." Tony greeted him with a stubbornly shaky smile.

The blonde treated him with another one of his cold glares and snapped "I don't like bullies. I don't care where they are from."

Tony scowled. Why was he getting the heat? He was the victim, not the criminal, if prince charming hadn't realised.

He opened his mouth to let out a snarky retort but the blonde had already whipped his head back to Rumlow.

Tony waited patiently as he started giving him a speech about why bullying was bad and why he shouldn't do it ever again. He wondered if the guy was a teacher with growth hormone deficiency because it made no sense to believe that a boy would give such stern lectures.

"I swear, I'll kick you out of the team the next time this happens!" He snapped angrily and told the guy off.

Tony gave him a flattering smile as he turned to him but the blonde's face was still flushed, even the tips of his ears red with anger.

"Tony Stark," Tony held out his hand confidently, trying to come up with a truce.

"Steve Rogers. You need to stop smart mouthing people." The blonde replied solemnly, shaking his hand with a firm grip.

Tony laughed at the blonde, not failing to realize how shy he was feeling all of a sudden "That's a long name..."

Steve glared at him again and put his hands to his waist, looking completely exasperated with him. There was a deep crease between his eyebrows that made him look thirty and not sixteen./p>

"What did I just say?" He snapped at him curtly.

Tony patted him on the shoulder lightly as he started to walk. Tony followed him quickly trying not to be annoyed at how long Steve's strides were. He almost had to jog to keep up with him.

"I'm just joking," he muttered chuckling.

"Everything's a joke to you, isn't it?" The blonde asked tossing him a judgemental look in between shoving his stuff into the locker, taking a bulky book with some rudimentary equations back in return.

Tony shrugged his shoulders once again feeling a bit sulky. He wanted Steve to think he was surely funny not immaturely funny. He started to protest but saw that he wasn't very bothered, he watched silently as the boy flipped through the book with a strained expression on his face. Tony had to remind himself not to act haughty because not everyone had his brain and found high school math as basic shit .

commented cleared his throat to get the de attention and commented "Well, Jarvis does say that I live on sardonic humour and coffee,"

Steve looked up from his book looking confused and concerned at the same time and yet another time Tony was reminded of the disparities between his schoolmates and himself. Not everyone was fortunate enough to live in a penthouse with a butler at their whim and call.

"Jarvis is my butler," he then feeling embarrassment creep into himself. Steve nodded, glancing up at him for a second and then taking his eyes away quickly, as though unsure about what he should he say.

Tony stared at the blonde openly as he concentrated on the book. He had to admit, Steve Rogers was finely sculpted compare to the average pubescent teenagers in their country.

He had good features, evenly spaced out and everything but he wasn't edging towards the obnoxiously handsome group like his friends outside of school either. He exuded an aura of safety and warmth and he was perfect. 

Tony jumped back clutching his chest as the bell rang loud enough to burst his eardrum. Steve too winced at it's screeching sound but he straightened up quickly and offered: "Do you want an escort?"

"Escort?" Tony blurted out, staring at him confused.

To his surprise, a smug smile grew on Steve's lips as he latched his locker shut. He turned to him and remarked cheekily "I don't want the sole heir of STARK Industries to be squashed by Rumlow and his goons,"

Tony scowled in indignation at his joke but playfully shoved Steve's arm. He quickly withdrew his hand, having a hard time trying to ignore how tense and strong the blonde's biceps were. He stared up at his ocean blue eyes and hissed "Outrageous,"

Steve just tossed him a casual smile and started to walk away without even giving him a warning  
"You plan on walking?" He called out loudly.

"Wait up, big guy!" Tony shouted sprinting up to catch up with his new friend.  
\-----------------------

Tony scribbled on his paper bored as Fury drawled on and on about vectors. They were almost seventeen, for God's sake. Couldn't he teach them something more interesting? 

Tony had always found the Navier-Strokes riveting. He could maybe brief them about that. He leaned back on his chair, scanned the class and decided maybe it wasn't Fury's fault.

The guy next to him, Clint was squinting at the board and tapping his pen in the book as though he was trying to find a new way to solve E= mc^2.

"Mr Rogers?" Fury asked loudly.

Tony whipped his head up, feeling excited for the first time in a while, hearing the pleasantly familiar name.

His knight in shining armour was apparently sitting two rows in front of him. Tony craned his neck a bit to get a better view. Steve was running a hand through his hair in frustration. He was having trouble in doing his problem and Tony had the vague feeling that Fury surveying him like a hawk helped the matter either.

Tony felt anger climb inside him on seeing the teacher terrorizing him mercilessly. He finally decided that things had gone far enough and stood up seeing the humiliated look on Steve's face.

"What kind of a system is this?" He blurted out loudly.

Almost all of the class turned to him, even the geeks in the first row turned back. Fury finally looked up from Steve's notebook and started to make his way towards Tony.

"You have a problem, Stark?" The tall man asked curtly.

Tony nodded, glaring at the bigger man. He flinched on seeing Steve hide his face looking vaguely embarrassed behind Fury's shoulder. Tony wondered for a moment if Steve didn't want him to stand up for him, he finally told himself it didn't matter 

He cleared his throat ignoring the  
others "You can't just bully him, not for not understanding... stupid ... vectors,"

"Is that so?" Fury asked him with bated breath. Tony got a boost of adrenaline as he saw Steve looking up at him, his eyes swimming with an odd kind of hopefulness.

"Yes. I mean, how many of the people in this room are going to be mathematical geniuses. Really?" Tony asked him snarkily. To be completely honest, he believed that half of the class would fail their lessons. Maybe a few book eating monsters in the front bench would scrape up an A. Still that was because they were always buried in a book.

"You." Clint pointed out quickly, in between copying the answers from Tony's notebook.

"Well, yes. Still, mathematics is not compulsory to prosper in life. Is it? I mean, if you aren't planning to build a whole tech mogul, like me." He rambled. Tony had the distinct feeling that he might have skived off the boundaries of being humble and down to earth.

Fury glared at him for a moment. He seemed half confused, to be honest. Tony groaned, slid off his seat and walked past Fury to the row where Steve was seated.

He went to the left end and asked the beefy and vaguely drowsy blonde. "What do you want to be in life, kid?"

He flashed his eyes open and stared at Tony his mouth open. He mumbled something to him, he vaguely reminded Tony of a huge sloth.

Tony grunted in disappointment and went to the redhead sitting next to him. "What about you, red?"

She smirked eyeing him flirtily and told him "An executioner,"

Tony winced, wondering if people actually had these kinds of dreams. He gulped but said "Um, not the answer I needed but you don't need math to execute someone,"

She opened her mouth to protest but Tony skipped away quickly, feeling a bit shaky from the girl's scary aura.

He went to the girl next to her and asked hopefully "What about you? Anything except a murderer or paedophile?"

She giggled a bit shaking her head and told him "Cop."

Tony took a grateful bow at her and told Fury "I think Cops only use math for computing the change for doughnuts,"

He looked unimpressed at his joke but Tony felt that it was just his face and not his expression. Anyhow some of the students seemed to find his joke extremely funny.

"What about you, Rogers?" He asked with a smile and leaned over an amused Steve's desk.

His heart fluttered on seeing him chuckle fondly, his blue eyes twinkling at Tony "I want to get enlisted,"

Tony let out an impressed 'ooh' and asked him "To fight?"

Steve shook his head and answered " to defend,"

Tony stared at the earnest look for a while feeling his stomach twist into knots. He blushed and looked away quickly as the Steve arched a half shy, half-confused eyebrow at him.

He glanced up at Fury, feeling a bit dry in his mouth but stated  
"I rest my case, your honour "

\-----------------------

Tony scrunched his nose at the salad in the cafeteria disgusted and left with a few of the rolls, soup and a coke. He scanned the mostly filled benches of the cafeteria, wondering if anyone would allow him to sit with them.

He almost dropped the idea and went to eat near the trash cans, when Clint's hand shot up.

"Stark!" He barked, waving him over with a grin. Tony hid his excitement on finally getting a seat and strutted over to join the others in the table. 

He smiled at Steve, Clint, Banner, red, a brunet and the drowsy blonde who looked vaguely energetic now.

"Natasha Romanoff, I'm James Barnes and that's Thor." The brunet pointed to red and the blonde on his right.

"Thor?" Tony asked in surprise. He wasn't sure if the school's student exchange policy covered Norse Gods.

Clint laughed at this "It's just Chris' nickname,"

He nodded sagely and nibbled on one of the rolls as Natasha spoke up "It was kind of cool of you to stand up for Rogers,"

He nodded again taking the compliment. He wasn't sure about Natasha yet, she kind of had this look that told Tony she could murder him without blinking. Yet, she also gave off the vibe of a friend who would go to any lengths to protect you.

"It was more than cool. Thank you, Tony," Steve chimed in looking both very grateful and shy as he smiled at him.

Tony grinned at the handsome blonde, feeling his chest puff out with pride at the compliment. "I just had a really good class on anti-bullying,"

Steve beamed at him happily but apologized with a small shrug "I'm sorry, I yelled at you earlier," 

Tony waved him away offhandedly and said "I deserved it,"

They both stared at each other for a while, only breaking off when Natasha cleared her throat, rolling her eyes at him.

"Friends?" Steve asked him timidly.

"Friends." Tony agreed with a smile.


	2. Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to every single person who put kudos on the work. It means the world to me xoxo

"Cheese!" Clint screamed alarming Tony with an abrupt flash of lightning, probably blinding him for life.

He cursed under his breath, poking his eyes with his finger as the flash burned off his fucking retina. He could only hear as someone walked up beside him. "Clint, we've talked about this."

Tony turned around and opened his eyes with an effort to see Steve standing next to him. The blonde smiled at him apologetically and muttered "I'm sorry,"

"Why are you sorry?" He asked steadying himself as the virtue of sight slowly crept back on him.

"I hired him for the school magazine," Steve said with a sigh.

Tony just smirked as Clint and Steve bickered around him like an old couple. Only stopping when Natasha pulled Clint away by the ear.

For some reason, the redhead seemed to have some kind of respect and affection towards Steve. Tony felt his eyes pop out considering, he hadn't even been sure if she was capable of the action of showing any form of affection until then.

Classes went on like usual. The teachers read through boring stuff that he didn't even need to hear to understand. Clint copied off his answers and Steve still sat at an unbridgeable distance of two rows in the front.

Tony didn't feel very happy about the arrangement but he couldn't bitch about him either, as Steve was the reason he could walk freely in the corridors.

He smiled wide at Brock on the way to lunch. The guy just grumbled some curses under his breath and walked off. Tony felt a buzz of happiness inside him as he picked a tray of food.

"What's happening?" He asked slipping into his usual seat. It hadn't taken him exactly a long time to notice the gang was exceptionally silent.

Clint, Thor and Bruce were eating their sandwiches awkwardly while Steve and Natasha were purposely glaring outwards. Tony shrugged on noticing a tick popping out on Steve's jaw.

"I just wanted to help you!" Natasha snapped abruptly.

"You should have asked me if I needed it first!" Steve snapped back, looking furious.

"It was obvious you need help!" She pointed out angrily.

Steve let out of a snort of disbelief and looked at his friends for help. Tony struggled to hide a smile as the guys who were busy gawking at Steve and Natasha suddenly start shovelling their food inside.

Natasha started to talk again, this time her voice was calm and not unkind "All you do is sit at home and sketch or work at the shop. You really need to sort out your priorities, Steve."

, To everyone's surprise, Steve yanked his hand away from her grip and stormed off kicking his chair back.

"It's still my life." He had told her angrily before leaving.

Tony stared at the rest of the gang, his mouth open. He knew well enough that Steve was a short-tempered guy but he was never impolite. He was the most gentle person Tony knew and the last person he would expect to flip off his friends.

The rest of the gang just avoided each other's eyes for the rest of the lunch until the bell rang.

It wasn't until Tony was yawning in his language class that Tony received a text.

_Tony?_

**Steve?**

_I'm sorry for lunch._

**That's alright.**  
**I'm sure you had your reasons.**

The next text came after a while. Tony stared at the screen of his phone as it showed that Steve was typing. 

_I might be biting off_  
_more than I can chew._

**I'm ready to lend an ear.**  
**If you want.**

_I'll keep that in mind,_  
_thanks :)_

Tony waited for Steve to send another text or something because he never had been the best at starting conversations.

_Tony?_

**Here.**

_I want to invite you to_  
_a party_. 

Tony's stomach took a jolt on reading the invitation. Steve was inviting him to parties now? 

If he was to believe the words of their friends' words, Steve never went out. So it wasn't him being a party animal or anything. He probably wanted to spend time with him.

Or he could just be trying to help the poor weakling get a social life. Tony felt his spirits drain fast, that was probably it. Steve looked like he had a thing for the redhead anyways.

**I'll consider it.**

_It would mean a lot_  
_to me, if you come._

Tony licked his lips nervously. Maybe Steve did like him.

**I'll try to come.**

_Good, I have to go._  
_Coulson looks suspicious._  
_Bye._

Tony chuckled to himself. He was pretty sure that Coulson would just praise Steve if he caught him anyways. He was the art teacher's pet, even if he argued he wasn't.

\--------------

"J Man?" Tony asked racking through his closet.

The tall man walked up to him quickly and offered in a verypolite voice "Sir?"

Tony flinched at the use of the word 'sir'. He had told the butler to use his name a hundred times but he had waved it off saying it was more trouble than its worth.

"Does this say PaRtY?" He asked twirling so that Jarvis could get a full view of his outfit.

He waited for the older man to offer him advice but he simply scratched his chin and asked "You're going to a party?"

Tony arched an eyebrow at him. It wasn't the first time he would go to a party for Jarvis to look so surprised.

"Last time I remember, your fellows school mates were measly canworms who did not deserve your time." The man remembered.

Tony felt his face go red but muttered "Well there are some...level headed creatures too... it seems."

Jarvis chuckled at his remark and asked, "May I dare to ask for her name?"

He scowled at him as he went down the stairs and looked for the keys of his car. "It's the twenty-first century Jay, it doesn't have to be a she."

Jarvis handed him the keys to his Audi and went on to straighten his shirt saying "Oh, I'm terribly sorry young master. Who is he?"

"All in due time Mr.Jarvis. All in due time," he promised leaving the house.

\------------------

Tony parked the car inside the garage of Clint's house as Steve had asked him to. Steve had reminded him such an expensive car needed protection.

He let out a small breath of air and walked into the crowded hall. He first found Clint throwing darts at the kitchen, then Natasha and Bucky arguing in the couch.

He went in a bit inside searching for Steve and finally found him sitting on the stairway. Tony bit his lips on seeing him chat with Sharon and noticed her hand was resting on his thigh.

Steve glanced upon seeing him and gave Tony an apologetic grin, beckoning to Sharon. Tony just nodded and rushed away after flashing him a thumbs up.

"Yello!" A voice screeched behind his ear.

He turned aside and smiled on seeing Clint. The guy pulled him towards the couch and shoved a beer in his hand.

"Ain't no party without alcohol," He winked and left Tony who was sitting awkwardly between Natasha and Bucky.

"Steve looks happy with Sharon, doesn't he?" Natasha asked him abruptly.

Tony winced at the question. He didn't want to think about him now, especially not about him dating sone random girl.

"Uhuh," he mumbled, sipping on the can of beer.

"That's because he's too polite to act otherwise," Bucky pointed out quickly.

Tony felt a ton of weight release from his chest on the comment. No, Steve didn't want to spend time with Sharon, he was just being polite with her. It wasn't like he even invited her, he only invited Tony.

Suddenly, the party felt way more entertaining to him. The music blasting from the speakers didn't give him a headache anymore and the beer was just as good as the one's he drank on Tiberius' partys.

"So he won't date anyone because he broke up with Peggy?" Natasha shot back at him.

"No, he will date someone he wants to..." The brunette corrected her.

"Do you think that will happen any time soon, Buck?" She asked him in a shaky voice.

"Just give the kid some time," Bucky told her calmly.

Natasha drew a long breath and told him "I just hate seeing him so sad..."

Tony crawled back and climbed away from the couch and slipped down to the floor as Bucky took the redhead's arm and pulled her in.

He went back to get a new beer and felt a pleasant chill against his spine on seeing Steve nursing his drink alone.

"Hi," he said sitting next to the blonde.

He beamed at him and offered him another beer. Tony accepted it gratefully and asked, "Where's Sharon?"

Steve shook his head and told him guiltily "I have no idea,"

Tony arched an eyebrow at him confused. Steve gulped down some of the beer and told him "I think she escaped when I started to rant about World War 2,"

Tony choked on his beer and shot Steve a look. The blonde blushed hard and told him "I got nervous,"

Tony decided to refrain from asking who talked about World War 2 when they were nervous and said, "Anyways, sorry."

Steve gave him a small smirk finishing his beer and reaching for a new one. Tony looked from his half-finished bottle to Steve amused, it seemed like the blonde had an extraordinarily high level of metabolism.

"I might have been sabotaging myself," Steve muttered sipping on his fresh bottle.

Tony felt his spirits fly high at his confession but managed to curl his lips down into a frown.

"Now, why would you do that Rogers?" He teased the blonde.

Steve chuckled shyly, his cheeks went a little red but Tony wasn't sure if it was actually him or the alcohol. He finally let his eyes travel back to Tony and said "The right partner, I guess."

"Well, you got any guesses on who that might be?" Tony interrogated him again, wondering if the whole room could hear his heart thumping.

Steve slipped the bottle back and climbed down the stool, he pulled his jacket on and told him "Not yet. You wanna get going? Take my advice and leave before Clint starts his karaoke system..."

Tony flinched as the karaoke system squealed on, sounding like claws dragged against a blackboard. He rolled his eyes as Clint jumped on top of a table with a mic.

"Christ..." Tony muttered under his breath and ushered off pushing Steve to the front by the small of his back.

\--------------

"I really wanted to hang out with you Tony. I just couldn't hang Sharon high and dry ." Steve confessed to the Tony, gazing at him fondly.

Tony licked his lips nervously, feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

"That's quite alright," he muttered as Steve crouched down to pull the shutter of the garage open.

Tony smirked as Steve's shirt pulled up, revealing his sculpted back. He stared at it woefully until Steve spoke up again "If you want. If you want... we can hang out at the coffee place tomorrow."

"Never the one to say no to coffee," Tony told him and felt warmth spread inside him on seeing Steve's face glow.

"We'll go after my practice then," Steve told him smiling, Tony gave him a lofty smile and took the driver seat of his car.

He turned on the engine and asked "Want a ride?"

To his surprise, the blonde let out a small laugh and told him "No, this type of car is not meant to be in the guttery roads of Brooklyn,"

Tony shrugged at his comment but didn't press on, scared that he would hurt the blonde's ego. He painted another smile on his face quickly and asked "So, tomorrow evening?"

"Definitely." Steve beamed at him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really sorry for the late update. I hate my life but I love y'all. So here's the new chapter and lots of typos and errors warning.
> 
> You can twist and shout in the comments or at my Tumblr prince-of-midgard/ starkspangledsoldier 💞💞

Just as he put his feet on the bleacher, Tony realised he was on a forbidden site. He licked his lips nervously and sat down on the bleacher, feeling shaky on being alone in a jock hangout.

Tony felt his heart forget about all of its fears and skip a beat or two as Steve pulled off his sweaty jersey and sprinted over to him.

He tapped his fingers nervously, trying to be cool as the blonde climbed on top of the railing and leaned back against it.

"Hey, can you give me a minute to wrap everything up?" He asked him breathlessly.

"Course," he muttered and Tony felt his stomach flip again as the blonde gifted him a soft smile and ran back, clapping his teammate tight on the back.

"Good luck on your date, Cap!" The well-built guy with a bronze complexion shouted as Steve walked back to him from the locker room in a fresh shirt, his damp golden locks hanging in front of his forehead.

"Shut up, Wilson!" He shouted back on cue with a grin and pulled Tony away.

He gave him a shy smile, his blue eyes twinkling fondly at Tony. "Let's go?"  
\------------------

Tony sat down in the squashy green couch awkwardly. He had to be honest, even though he wasn't expecting for it to be a date. He hadn't really thought they were going out with the gang.

But he had walked into the coffee shop to find the whole gang including; Natasha, Clint, Barnes, Thor and Banner staring up at him.

"Who invited you?" Barnes asked, not making an effort to sound polite and got a punch from Natasha in return. 

Tony rolled his eyes at him but Natasha answered for him "Steve did,"

The blonde walked back, handing him a cup of coffee and cookies. To his surprise, Steve sat down on the ground between him and red heavily.

"Graceful, captain." Natasha teased, carding her hand through his damp hair. He let out an affronted scowl but let it go, handing Tony his cup of coffee.

Tony consoled himself taking a sip of the hot coffee as the gang bickered noisily. He would have rather be with Jarvis than sitting alone with a group of annoying, noisy teenagers.

He felt his heart seize as a familiar thought floated into his head. Maybe he had been right earlier, he was Steve's charity case. He felt bile rise up his throat at the thought.

He was quickly snapped out of his daze, almost dropping his cup of coffee as someone gripped his free hand tightly. He glanced down to see Steve gripping his hand tight with an apologetic smile on his face.

"You're getting bored." He said it was more of a statement than a question. He wondered if he should be truthful, agree but that would hurt Steve and somehow the idea didn't fare well inside him. 

He shook his head and was about to say no but Steve gave him a reproachful look, making him fall silent and hang his head low. Tony watched silently as the blonde got up to his feet and snatched his jacket.

Steve shot him another look that translated for him to get his own jacket. Tony succumbed and got his own jacket but asked: "Won't they notice?"

Steve let out a loud snort and looked at the gang who were having a catfight over the last muffin. Tony felt his lips curl up and muttered "Let's go then,"

Tony pushed his fist into his jacket as they walked down the chilly street. He gazed at Steve as he walked with a small smile on his lips.

"Tony?" he asked as he halted to a pause to stare at the store with paintings as it's display.

He hummed to let steve know he was listening and joined his gaze to look at the painting of a Victorian couple dancing in a spring garden.

"I wanted to spend time alone with you, too," Steve told him quietly.

"You did?" Tony blurted out failing to contain his excitement.

Fuck off mind, whose the charity case now? He thought in triumph.

Steve laughed a little but said softly "Bucky wanted me to meet him today. Liar, he wanted to keep me away from you."

Tony felt a bit stung. He didn't know what he had done to the guy that he was attacking him so violently. He didn't even know the guy enough to hate him.

It didn't bother him much that Barnes hated him but what mattered to him was that he was trying to keep Steve away from him. What mattered, even more, was that Steve spoke so fondly of him, even now.

"Do you think I deserve his hate?" Tony asked surveying the blonde Victorian soldier in the painting.

Steve didn't answer him for a while. Tony finally tore his eyes away from the painting and at Steve. The blonde glanced down at his feet for a second and then at Tony.

He gave his head a microscopical shake and said "I don't know, Tony. It might be misguided but he's allowed to feel. He's just human. We all are."

Tony stared at him for a while. They were all just humans, he agreed. Everyone had their faults but he did wish he wouldn't get strangled to death by Barnes being human.

"Yeah, okay." He muttered under his breath.

Tony felt his cheek flush red as Steve took his hand in his own and muttered: "I do like you."

Tony could throw up rainbows and unicorns at that moment but he kept it all in and just answered "Me too,"

Steve smiled and started to lead him away. Tony followed him excitedly, having no idea where he was being led to.

Steve walked a bit more and finally led him to the steps of the park, sitting down on the top step. Tony followed the suit and sat down beside him.

"I'm not like you, Tony" Steve started abruptly.  
The brunet looked up at him confusion lurking behind his bright brown eyes.

Steve forced out a sigh "I live with my ma in a rented out apartment in Brooklyn."

He looked at Tony for shock, disbelief or disgust but the boy just stared at him intently. He scratched his eyebrow nervously "My ma works as a nurse in a hospital and my dad..."

Tony winced on finding out that they were mutuals in paternal backgrounds. He wondered if Mr.Rogers was like Howard.

If it wasn't for Jarvis, Tony was pretty sure that he would have decked his father on the jaw right now. It didn't matter if he had decades on Tony, a bastard was still a bastard.

Tony glanced down to find Steve twiddling his thumbs nervously. If it was any indication then Mr.Rogers was just as bad.

"He left because of me," Steve finally confessed.

"You?" He asked him in surprise. Why would somebody leave because of him? Tony had known him for nearly two weeks and he considered a second spend away from Steve a waste.

"I was really sick when I was born. It took me a month to cry, they said. Old man said he couldn't handle it," Steve explained glaring at the floor.

Tony felt his heart pierce as he saw the faint wetness in Steve's clear blue eyes. Tony felt himself moving towards Steve, he wasn't even sure how he worked up the nerves to hold his arm but there he was holding Steve's arms.

The blonde shook his head as though trying to clear his mind and whipped his head up to Tony "I'm still poor.I'm not like you."

Tony grimaced at him, trying to ignore how close his face was to Steve's. They were so close that Tony could see the flecks of gold in Steve's long eyelashes.

"Umm, I really don't want someone like me," He muttered shakily, feeling Steve's warm breath against his face.

"I'd much rather have someone like you Steve," He muttered leaning in so close that his heart started to beat like a drum in a rock concert.

Steve eyed him carefully for a moment as though checking if he was joking with him. He nodded nervously, Tony slipped his eyes down to see his Adams apple bob up and down.

"Can I?" He asked, his voice a deep rumble.

Tony wasted no time to answer him and pressed a kiss against his lips.

They made out for a while until Steve pulled back. Tony couldn't help but laugh as Steve gave him a smile so goofy that it contradicted with his whole personality.

"Yeah?" He asked him.

"Yeah."


End file.
